The Beauty in the Blooms 🌼 Doubt and John the Baptist

Doubt & John the Baptist

Have you ever noticed the Bible’s willingness to tell the whole truth about people even when it exposes their sin or makes them look bad?

Scripture does not hide the faults of the great heroes of the faith.

God’s Word tell us about their failings and their strengths. We are told that even Moses doubted the Lord in Exodus 4.

Yet, of all people, even John the Baptist had a moment of doubt about the person and work of Jesus.

After all, John was Jesus’ cousin and he was the Messiah’s forerunner and he had baptized Jesus. He recognized Him as the Father’s Anointed One.

Now let’s look back at Matthew chapter 3, where John is baptizing Jesus…  and as Jesus comes up out of the water… …the heavens open up and the Spirit of God descend like a dove with lighting on Him, and a voice out of heaven says, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.”

John, who had witnessed such an event as this… …now sits in prison, awaiting a death sentence and he wonders if Jesus is the Messiah. So, he sends some of his disciples to ask Him.

Now… before I continue, we’re going to go back to chapter 3 in Matthew because this will help put John’s uncertainty and his doubts into perspective…

Starting in verse 7 John sees many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism and he calls them a brood of vipers, and asks them who has warned them to flee from the wrath to come?

Then in verse 10 he warns them that the axe is already laid at the root of the trees; and so every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

Now listen to verses 11 & 12:

¹¹ “As for me, I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

¹² His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clear His threshing floor; and He will gather His wheat into the barn, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

This is John’s perspective. …John expects the judgement of evil or the vindication of holiness at the hands of Jesus, God’s Messiah… but this is not happening.

Now remember…  John is in prison. He is waiting for his own execution… and he’s hearing about all the wonderful works of Jesus. How the blind can see, and how the lame can walk… and how people have been raised from the dead.

Yet he sets in prison.

Would it not be natural for John to question… to have some doubts?

I pondered what John said in verse 12… he thought Jesus was going to bring vindication, …so where is his vindication?

Now, (Going back to chapter 11 in Matthew), Jesus answers John’s question indirectly with a list of His own miracles (vv. 4–5), most of which are drawn from messianic prophecies in Isaiah.

But He does not recite the promises of vengeance that are also found in Isaiah.

It is as if Jesus is saying to John, “Yes, I am the Messiah and my miracles prove it. But the final judgment is yet to come. In the meantime, I will preach the Gospel to the poor and redeem God’s people.”

Christ is trying to help John understand what God’s Word truly says about the Messiah  and to bring his expectations of the Messiah’s work into line with what the Word says;  and how the righteous (especially Jesus) must suffer before the kingdom comes in all its fullness (Isaiah chap. 53).

Like John, we live in an era when the good guys do not always win. Righteous people suffer, good and godly people get hurt, they get sick, they lose their jobs, their homes, even their families…  and this can lead us to doubt God’s promises.

But Christ’s kingdom is growing, and we look forward to its sure [con-sa-ma-tion] consummation (Heb. 9:27–28).

Matthew Henry wrote: “The remaining unbelief of good men may sometimes, in an hour of temptation, strike at the root, and call in question the most fundamental truths which were thought to be well settled. The best saints have need of the best helps they can get for the strengthening of their faith, and the arming of themselves against temptations. Let us turn to the Word and other Christians so that doubt does not fester into unbelief.

Matthew 11: 1-6

1 When Jesus had finished giving instructions to His twelve disciples, He departed from there to teach and preach in their cities.

2 Now when John, while imprisoned, heard of the works of Christ, he sent word by his disciples

3 and said to Him, “Are You the Expected One, or shall we look for someone else?”

4 Jesus answered and said to them, “Go and report to John what you hear and see:

5 the blind receive sight and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.

6 And blessed is he who does not take offense at Me.”

Jesus’ Tribute to John

7 As these men were going away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John, “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? 8 But what did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing? Those who wear soft clothing are in kings’ palaces!

9 But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and one who is more than a prophet.

10 This is the one about whom it is written, ‘Behold, I send My messenger ahead of You, Who will prepare Your way before You.’

11 Truly I say to you, among those born of women there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptist! Yet the one who is [m]least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

12 From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and violent men take it by force.

The beauty of God’s creation can even be seen in the petal of a flower… for we can see His invisible attributes in all of His creation! Yet with all the evidence that surrounds us sometimes there are times of doubt. In this week’s devotion I consider John the Baptist when he sends his disciples to ask Jesus, “Are You the Expected One, or shall we look for someone else?”